Mason
The Lost Billionaires, Book 1
Allison LaFleur
Edited by
Kate Downs
Copyright © 2018 by Allison LaFleur
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Also by Allison LaFleur
About the Author
Chapter 1
Kinsey
“Holy shit!”
Stunned, I sat coughing and staring at the steam pouring out from under the hood of my car. The airbag hung like a popped balloon across my lap, and the windshield was spider-webbed so badly I couldn’t see out. “Oh crap! I’m going to be so late, and Dad is going to be furious!” It was a nightmare.
I scrambled out of my totaled car in a panic and looked down at the mess in front of me. The hood was crumpled, and something leaked from underneath the engine and ran in a green stream across the asphalt to disappear into a nearby storm drain.
“I don’t freaking believe it!” I shook my head and swore some more before I sat back down in the plush leather driver’s seat and pounded the steering wheel with my fists.
Reality set in. I was in a heap of trouble and it wasn't even my fault. That dog came barreling out of nowhere and ran right in front of me. When I swerved to avoid it, I ran into a bloody telephone pole. No good deed goes unpunished, right?
“My poor car!” I cried, hanging my head. Dad had just bought the peacock blue Mini Cooper for me when I’d moved out of the dorms six months earlier. I loved her. Driving Adele, I was in control. If I was good to her, she was good to me. She made me think that one day I could truly be free.
Now she sat half across the curb, scrunched up against the pole. When I turned the key, she only sputtered. Teetering on my 4-inch heels, I stood again to look at the wreckage and hung my head.
I needed to get to Dad’s office in the next ten minutes, and Adele was my ride. I pushed against her dented grill, desperate to shove her off the curb, but she only rocked. She wouldn’t budge an inch. I even messed up my fresh French manicure, tearing the white tips off two nails as I attempted to open the damaged hood to take a look at the engine. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t move her. I shivered and my palms started to sweat.
I shivered, and my palms began to sweat. I was going to be very late for lunch. Sitting back in the driver’s seat, I dug my phone out of my catch-all purse and searched the internet for how to call a taxi.
This kind of thing always happened to me. If I set something on a windowsill, it would fall out the window. If I parked under a tree, an entire flock of birds would poop on my car, or with my luck, the whole damn tree would fall and crush it. I had the worst luck ever. Dad could never figure out how a klutz like me came from a pedigree like mine.
“Citywide Taxi,” the man said on the other end of the line, his gravelly voice crackling in my ear.
“Hi. Yes. I need a cab at the corner of Watson and Third.” I tapped my fingers on the dash and pushed my big sunglasses up on top of my head to look around for the dog, but he was long gone. Probably off chasing squirrels in his back yard somewhere. The only good thing about that day was that I didn’t hit him.
Lunch with Dad was going to be a disaster. No one made Noah Hendrix, III, wait. People waited on him; he didn’t wait on others.
I winced at my fresh seatbelt bruises as I reached into the backseat to grab my backpack. I had a test in biochem to study for, and I needed my notes.
Mason
Idly spinning in my black leather office chair, I looked out over a breathtaking view of New York. The bright neon lights shone through the haze hanging over Times Square. Light glinted off the windshields of cars, flashing as they drove by on the street below. The city, like me, never stopped. I tapped my steepled fingers against my upper lip as I thought about my life.
What am I going to do?
My company Phantomfire Media had developed a graphics card that was in high demand by all the big gaming companies as an essential piece of a new high-end video console coming out the next month. We were even developing our own system that I hoped to launch the next year. Unfortunately, the factory in China that was supposed to produce it was facing issues. I wasn’t exactly sure what those issues were; my assistant Mary was still trying to get specifics. I wished I’d taken Mandarin in high school instead of French. If I couldn’t get this production problem fixed, it was going to cost me a fortune in fines and delays.
Ring! Ring!
Spinning back around to my desk, I picked up my private line. “Hello?” I glanced at my cell and realized I had missed several calls.
“Hi Mason. It’s Mom.”
“Hi, Mom!” I smiled, always glad to hear from her.
“I figured you would be working late again.”
“Mom...” She never changed. “I travel. I date. I have friends.”
“Mason, really?” I could picture her cocking one eyebrow at. “When are you going to let me introduce you to some proper women?”
“You know I’m married to my work. No woman is going to put up with my weird hours and constant travel.” Shaking my head, I absently picked up a paperclip and started unbending it. “I’ll settle down eventually... just not yet.”
“I love you Mason, but look how happy your brother is.”
I sighed. She never changes!
“I know Mark is happy, but he’s also exhausted and distracted.” I picked up the picture of Mark, Laurie, and the babies that sat on my desk next to the picture of my mom and dad when they were young. “He missed a deadline last week. Between you and me, Mom, they have got to get a nanny, or he has to find someone else to run the company.”
I could hear her disapproval over the phone line and knew she was wondering where she’d gone wrong with me. I was not about to get trapped in a marriage, roped in by babies, and let my company go to ruin. My company was my baby. Every day we revolutionized the gaming world. I had a stack of inquiries from big name gaming companies who not only wanted to order our new graphics card but were also asking if we could improve their processor or develop some other component they need to take their games to the next level. We were already making a name for ourselves in the industry with our high level of innovation.
Mom, I’m barely thirty. I have a long time before I need to start a family.” For now, that was Mark’s role.
As the eldest, Mark had taken over Dad’s company after he’d died, leaving me free to explore my own interests. I had done rather well for myself, too. While I didn’t have the backing of old money like the Hendrix Family, my latest tech company had sold for 50 millio
n dollars. This newest endeavor in the online gaming world looked just as promising.
Mark finding Noah again had been a godsend. I think Noah felt guilty for all Dad’s money problems and everything that happened to us after dad died. They had started H&L, now Hendrix BioTech, together. Noah had managed the business side, and Dad had focused on the research.
When Dad got sick, he asked Noah to buy him out of their fledgling company. He needed the money for the cancer treatments and to take care of us. Six months after leaving the company, Dad’s chemo drug started making millions, but it was too late. He died exactly 6 months and three days after they’d discovered his brain tumor.
He left Mom penniless with two young boys. The medical treatments had eaten up everything he got from the sale to Noah. Mom was so angry, she packed us up, sold the house, and never contacted Noah again.
Noah became a billionaire with Hendrix BioTech. I guess I was twelve. Mark had just finished high school. That’s when Mark tracked Noah down to ask him for help making something of the notes and patents Dad had left behind. Noah was horrified to find us living in a shelter and took Mark under his wing, and then later, me.
Mom was proud, though, and only took enough money to get us a place to live. She was still angry. She worked two jobs and tried to keep Dad’s research and patents paid up so she wouldn’t lose the rights to them. After all those years and all our successes, she was still determined to look out for us.
“You may be an adult, but you’re still my little boy, and I worry about you. You need to call and come see me more. I miss you.”
“I know, Mom. I miss you too.”
“Oh! I almost forgot! Your brother is having us over for dinner next Sunday. You should come and bring a date!”
“I’ll try.” I glanced again at the picture on my desk of Mark’s family. “There’s a problem at the factory, and I may be headed to China.” I leaned back and put my feet up on my desk. “Hopefully, I can fix the problems from here. I don’t really have time to fly to China. I’ll come if I can.”
“All right. I’ll take what I can get. I love you, Mason.”
“Love you too, Mom. Night.” Gently setting the receiver in its plastic cradle, I leaned back and looked out over the city again.
I hated disappointing my mom more than anything, but where Mark had dreamed of a family, I’d always dreamed of inventing things. I had pictured myself running an office and directing teams of scientists. I’d loved my computer and engineering courses in college and lived and breathed my business classes. I chuckled to myself, spinning to look out over New York again. I guess all those dinners listening to Mark and Noah had rubbed off.
Kinsey
“Thanks for the ride.” I gathered my things and handed the cabby a hundred dollar bill. ”Keep the change.” He’d shown up within 15 minutes and delivered me to Dad’s office in record time-- unusual for New York City traffic.
I stepped out onto the sidewalk and shut the car door. I gazed up at New York City reflecting back at me in the mirrored glass of Hendrix BioTech’s headquarters. I wanted to work for that company one day. I was studying biochemistry and engineering in the hopes Dad would change his mind about not involving me in the business.
Hitching my purse and backpack up higher on my shoulder, I took a deep breath and mustered all the courage I had. I knew he’d be waiting in his office, angry and barking orders at his latest executive assistant. I felt bad for her, whoever she was. They came and went so quickly I’d stopped learning their names years ago. Dad tended to hire them for their physical attributes, not their secretarial skills.
I strolled through the double glass doors with my head held high. "Hi, James. How are you?" James had been the doorman at Hendrix BioTech for as long as I could remember. From his seat at the half-moon security desk, he welcomed everyone who came through the main entrance, kept an eye out for trouble, and guarded the elevator leading up to the company’s inner sanctum.
"Good morning, Miss Hendrix." James smiled. “Are you okay?” His brow wrinkled as he noticed the cut on my forehead. He leaned closer to peer at it as I passed.
“I’m fine.” Pulling a tissue out of my pocket, I dabbed at the cut again. “I had a little accident and hit my head.”
“Are you sure? I have a first aid kit behind my desk.”
“It should stop bleeding soon. It’s not that bad. You know head wounds-- they always bleed a lot. I know your kids have done similar things!”
"If it’s still bleeding after you see your dad, you come back, and I’ll bandage it.” He smiled at me, brushing a stray hair from my forehead.
“How’s Maddie?” James’ wife was like a second mother to me. She was always sending care packages to whatever camps my father shuttled me off to every summer.
“The wife is great.” He chuckled. “She’s still complaining that it’s a full time job keeping me in line.” He gave me a quick hug as I got on the elevator, and with a wink, he pushed the UP button. The doors closed and I began the slow ride to the penthouse.
Dad’s current executive assistant, a redhead no more than 18, met me at the elevator. Like all his others, she was cute and perky and had an enormous chest. At that age, there wasn’t much else she could be hired for.
“Right this way, Miss Hendrix. James alerted us you were on your way up.” I’m sure this assistant thought she was special—they all did. But I knew my father, and if history repeated itself, she was the flavor of the month. His real executive assistant had more important duties than answer the phone and delivering coffee. She had no patience for Dad’s nonsense and occupied a quiet office away from foot traffic.
The busty redhead led me down the hall to his office door, and with a flounce and a smirk, she turned and announced, “Mr. Hendrix, your daughter is here.” Taking a deep breath, I pasted on a debutant’s smile and stepped into his office to face the music.
“You’re late, Kinsey. Where have you been?” Frost dripped from his voice. Dad put down the report he’d been reading and turned his silver streaked head to address me like I was a rival business associate. No Hi, how are you? No hug. Just, “You’re late.” Unlike James, he didn’t even comment on the fresh cut leaking blood above my eyebrow or the blackening bruise across my collarbone that peeked out over the neck of my shirt.
I sighed and mentally straightened the smile I felt slipping. “Hi, Dad.” I walked toward him as he stood and stretched up on my tiptoes to air kiss both of his cheeks. “I am so sorry I’m late. There was a tiny problem on the way here. I... um… well, there was a dog… and… the car-”
Dad drew himself to his full height and looked down his aristocratic nose at me. “Kinsey, what happened to your car?”
“I had a little accident,” I said, clearing my throat. I bit my bottom lip and tugged nervously on the hem of my shirt, balling up the fabric and then trying to smooth it out. No matter how old I got or how accomplished my professors viewed me, in his presence, I was always transported back in time to my childhood. Even then I could never be the neat, clean, quiet child he wanted to parade in front of clients.
“A little accident?!” He roared at me. His face reddened, and his hands gripped the edge of his desk, turning his knuckles white. “You had another accident?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” A tear slid down my face. “A dog ran in front of me, and I couldn’t help it. I swerved to miss the dog and hit a telephone pole instead.” Why can’t I be stronger? Just the week before, I had gone bouldering in Central Park and had no trouble conquering even the most difficult routes. Where was that girl?
“That’s no excuse!” He towered over me, icy blue eyes staring me down. I felt myself shrinking as my shoulders folded in.
What did he want me to do? Hit the dog? Can’t he, for once, show some concern for me? All I ever wanted to do was make him proud. Unfortunately, all I seemed to do was screw everything up and disappoint him.
He didn’t even want me to go to college. He thought sending me across t
he Atlantic to finishing school in Zurich would have been a better choice. “At least at the Institut Villa Pierrefeu in Zurich you would have learned some manners and how to be on time.” he said with a lip-curling sneer. “What do you need with a degree? Almost three years into your studies and here you are, late, looking a mess with some feeble, whiney excuse!”
Mom had supported me when I told her my dream to study bioengineering at Columbia, setting aside money for my tuition out of the trust fund Dad set up for her when they married. Before she died, she wanted to make sure I could chase my dream. Dad barely tolerated my studies. He thought it more important that I know which fork to use at dinner parties and how to greet foreign dignitaries. The previous semester, he’d completely dismissed my excitement when I got an A in calculus.
Instead, he asked if I had a dress appropriate for dinner with the Chinese ambassador. The ambassador had liked my dress and, unlike my own father, had asked about my schoolwork. I had two classes with his son and we were on track to graduate together. His enthusiasm was radiant compared to my father’s relentless rejection. Now, here he was again, disgusted by me.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” I said quietly, my face reddening in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.” I took a deep breath as silent tears rolled down my cheeks. “I will take care of fixing the car.”
He completely ignored the offer. “Kinsey, it’s time for you to grow up. Quit playing around with this pointless, self-indulgent college idea and be responsible. You have an obligation to the family that takes care of you, and yet you refuse to play your part. Look at today; you can’t even show up for lunch on time.” His voice dripped with disapproval. I felt like I was ten again and had just spilled grape juice on the Persian carpet. “I needed your Mandarin skills. You know you’re better than I am. Ambassador Zao and I stumbled through, but it took three times as long as it should have.”
Mason: The Lost Billionaires, Book 1 Page 1